Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Bombers draw inspiration from movie 300
Bombers Michael Bishop, right, shows some love to teammate Glenn January during practice this morning. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA )
WINNIPEG — It is a game that doesn't need any spin other than it's 'win or go home' for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
That said, the Bombers will draw inspiration from any source and that's why most of the locker room was mesmerized by the movie 300 playing on the clubhouse TVs after the final preparations were completed for tomorrow's critical contest with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
A Bomber victory would improve them to 8-10 and means they would finish second in the East Division — Hamilton, should it lose, would fall to 8-10 and lose the tiebreaker after dropping two of three to Winnipeg in the season series. That would set up a Hamilton at Winnipeg match-up again next Sunday in the East Semifinal.
A Bomber loss ends their 2009 season and would mean the B.C. Lions would qualify as the crossover team and would travel to Hamilton for the East Semifinal. The Ticats, courtesy Edmonton's win over the Lions yesterday, have already qualified for the postseason.
"This is an important game, but I don't want our guys to be overwhelmed by it," said Bomber head coach Mike Kelly. "I don't want the 'do-or-die', 'in-or-out' stuff to weigh too heavily on them. I've tried to keep things as loose as I could all week long for them because we play like a pack of wolves when we're just out there enjoying the game.
"That's probably my biggest worry: I just want us to go out and be 'us' and not be all tight about if we don't win this game what's going to happen."
The Bombers expect to have most of their banged-up personnel back for Sunday's game — kickoff is at noon — as defensive backs Jovon Johnson and Jonathan Hefney both practised, while linebacker Joe Lobendahn will return to share time with Barrin Simpson.
The availability of special-teams ace Shawn Gallant, who injured his knee, will likely be a game-time decision.
The Ticats, meanwhile, suffered a potentially huge blow at practice yesterday when kicker/punter Nick Setta was injured. He'll be replaced by former Rutgers kicker Jeremy Ito, who was actually cut by the team on Thursday. Sunday will be Ito's first CFL game.
But back to the Bombers...
It's only fitting that the team would be fixated by the movie 300 after practice Saturday. It's is the story of the 300 Spartans to battled over one million Persians to the death and this team, if nothing else, has been battling those kind of long odds after falling to 3-8 in September.
"You can't go wrong with 300, Troy, Alexander... those are all great movies. Very inspirational," said linebacker Ike Charlton.
"We've got one focus right now: to get a 'W' because if we don't win, we go home. We all know the magnitude and importance of this game. We respect our opponent, but we want to win. We're not leaving here today without a 'W.'"
The Bombers are hoping for a sell-out crowd of 29,533 for the contest and were up to 28,025 as of 4:30 p.m.. The team's diehards have rallied this week with a pep rally, the foundation of a new fan club and have been pushing the Blue Out promotion asking all in attendance to come decked out in Bomber blue. The early arrivals at the stadium Sunday will receive a Blue Out rally towel.
The game will also be a salute to the Armed Forces with a fly over prior to kickoff, a colour-guard ceremony and a military obstacle course at halftime with the Navy, Army and Air Force competing against each other.
"We want to go out and put a good showing on and get this Blue Out thing going," said Charlton. "We needed that, but we didn't really need it in this locker room, if you know what I'm saying. We know what we need to do as a team. This is what you play sports for. I'm not ready to go home. I mean, look how beautiful it is outside right now."
History
Updated on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 4:48 PM CST:
Updates ticket sales figures.
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